The word, Eskimo is fading from use. Most Natives of the Arctic regions from Greenland to Chukotka (Russia) prefer the term Inuit as a collective nominative. More correctly two distinctive groups could be the Yupik in northeast Russia, and western Alaska, and the Inuit in northern Alaska, Canada, and Greenland. Even better is to use the correct local name of the different native groups… Kalaallit, Inupiat, Yup’ik, Alutiiq, Sugpiaq, Unangax̂, Aleut, etc.
Are they even one people?
Yes, they are.
About 9000 years BC, the Bering Strait opened up and closed the land connection between Siberia and America. For a period of 20.000 years before that, people could migrate from Asia to Alaska dry-shod. The whole American continent was first populated over the Bering land bridge.
In the beginning, the Laurentide Ice Sheet blocked the way south, so the new immigrants had to stay more or less in Alaska. But as the Ice melted new lands opened up for exploration. Many went south, but some went east. We don’t know much about these early settlers but what we do know is that about 4500 years ago, Paleo-Inuit were present in Alaska, Canada, and Greenland.
Then, around 1000 AD, a new group expanded eastward through Canada. These were the Thule people who had been living around the Bering strait for a very long time. But for some reason, in just a few hundred years, they spread all the way to Greenland, and subsequently pushed other groups back.
The Thule were able to process iron, and that could have been a reason for their fast expansion. By the 14th century, they were present in all of today’s Inuit areas. These Thule are the Inuit’s ancestors.
That’s why they are tied together.
So, the Inuit spread across the Arctic less than a thousand years ago. Since then the different groups have developed somewhat different traditions and languages. The Yupik language is spoken mostly around the original location of the Thule: western Alaska and Siberia.
Someone could look at the normal map (Google map) and note a long distance between Alaska and Greenland. But using a different angle, it becomes obvious that the polar region actually is rather limited. And apart from the extreme environment spot on the North pole, the regions around it, together with the sea ice, could be seen as one single continent… And a reasonably small continent. The Inuit population has conquered and today, inhabit this part of the globe. It’s their land.
The stupid borders…
Unfortunately, their land is divided into various nations, even different continents. There are other peoples all over the world facing exactly the same issue. The national borders, sometimes drawn with a pen on a map without any knowledge about the realities of the territory, divide and separate populations, groups, and even families.
The white man has a dubious reputation in some parts of our planet. He brings diseases, he brings guns and warfare, he brings alcohol and he has a peculiar idea about land… He likes to put fences and flags into the ground and then this part is this, and that part is that.
The Europeans, without understanding the ethnic and territorial facts, have treated the Inuit like second-class citizens for centuries, in the US, Canada, Russia (The Soviet Union), and Denmark. In recent years many of the Indigenous people present on all continents all over the world, rightfully have reclaimed some of their lost rights and privileges.
The Sami of northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia is one example. Their Saami Council, founded in 1956, is a voluntary organization dealing with Saami policy tasks within these different nations.
In the same way, the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC), founded in 1977, is a body that represents all Inuit from Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and Chukotka in Siberia on matters of international importance.
We all want to be called by the correct name.
So, back to the name. Eskimo vs Inuit.
Inuit is the name for those previously called Eskimo. The Inuit Circumpolar Council decided in 1977 after having debated Eskimo vs Inuit, to prefer the term Inuit instead of the previously used Eskimo. The Inuit have never referred to themselves as Eskimo. In Canada and Greenland, the term has a derogative significance. This supposedly has to do with some interpreters having the word Eskimo meaning “Eater of raw meat”.
But it is normal that one would prefer naming oneself instead of having a complete stranger telling you what you’re supposed to be called. And that, in a strange language too. I believe it’s as simple as that.
The decision to use Inuit for all, was a somewhat pragmatic compromise.
Most people would have had a hard time distinguishing exactly who they would be talking about. And having one, single, and easy way to substitute Eskimo for something else, would be a great help.
The eastern Inuit agreed, but the linguistically distinct group of Yupik didn’t like the idea. The term Inuit would mean that they still have to call themselves something that wasn’t in their own language.
The word Inuit is the plural of Inuk meaning person, in Inuit language. Thus Inuit means People.
The word Yupik means real person from the term Yuk, meaning person, in Yupik language.
So, even though Inuit is accepted everywhere in the Arctic, a more correct way to address those from western, central, and southern Alaska would be Yup’ik (written with the accent.), and the people of Siberia and S:t Lawrence island as Yupik.
Here are some more rules when addressing the American Indigenous people.
Generally accepted rules about First Nation and First People:
The term Inuit replaces the term Eskimo.
The term First Nation replaces the term Indian.
First Peoples is an all-encompassing term that includes Inuit, First Nations, and Métis.
Do you notice anything in particular? Do you see anything strange? … With his face color? Biden is orange. Maybe I’m just imagining, but I’ve looked through quite a lot of videos, and news programs, and I definitely sense a tendency towards a more yellow skin tone. Biden is orange!
I have already covered Donald Trump’s orange face in an article, and many others have wondered about it. One idea was that the former President’s strange color came from the make-up. The Bronx Colors low-end product: Boosting Hydrating Concealer in Orange, had to take the blame. But maybe it wasn’t at all a make-up thing… And maybe it wasn’t even Trump in any special way…
Maybe it was the White House itself?
Donald Trump claimed that his orange face was because of the bulbs, that were “…the worst”, he said on more than one occasion. And he continued saying they were low-energy lamps, and that they were hazardous when ready for disposal. More about that later.
Could he be right? Is it possible that the light inside the White House makes whoever enters there, change the color of the face? And now Biden is orange just like Trump was?
Let’s check the possible light sources.
The spectrum that a light bulb emits, can vary extensively. Once upon a time, when we still had the incandescent bulbs, we were more limited, although all kinds of different warmths and colors were available. There were special light bulbs for greenhouses, aquariums, outdoor equipment, and for different indoor settings. But now, with the new technologies entering our houses, the possible variations are almost unlimited.
There are certain common properties though. The incandescent light bulb has a more even, smooth emission, that is leaning towards a more red-ish color. Sun-light is more blu, and low energy lamps like led, and fluorescent have a more narrow and irregular spectrum. These can be of practically any color though, but if they are warm-white, under 3000 Kelvin, they would probably appear more yellow than an incandescent bulb. The led light is more focused, and narrow in its spectrum, so when it’s orange, it’s more orange than its incandescent counterpart.
… And the make-up?
Yep, even if we don’t ad the Bronx Concealer to the plausible causes, make-up plays an important role of the life of any public person. Could they both be using similar products or even similar make-up artists inside the White House?
Incandescent lamp, Courtesy of Thorset
Light emission Spectrum
Sodium-vapor lamp / HPS
The really orange-yellow alternative…
Led lamp, Courtesy of Lamlot
Then we have the last possibility… The HPS-lamp. It’s a bulb that uses sodium in an excited state to produce light. They come in two versions, low-pressure, and high-pressure. The low-pressure is very yellow, while the high-pressure HPS-lamp is still very yellowish, but in a more tolerable nuance. In the past, street lighting used to be HPS. It is still used as such, but the typical warm character is not as present as it once was.
But how probable is it that they have HPS-lamps inside the white house? Well, not at all very likely. And it would show. Everything would look as a deserted city street at midnight. Still, the various types and colors of the illumination give us a wide range of possible solutions. If they use normal led bulbs, but in a warm white color, then that color would tend towards a less complete palette of colors than an old incandescent bulb would…. Even if it was the same color.
The last clue.
Donald Trump also said that the lamps were hazardous when ready for disposal. HPS-bulbs contain mercury, while LEDs do not.
Unfortunately, also low energy compact fluorescent lamps contain mercury, so it doesn’t get us any further.
The lamps are probable of the latter kind… CFLs, and fluorescent tubes. And if so, we cannot say what kind of color they are in every lamp base. Not without asking someone who has access to the white house.
Flourescent lamp
I do believe we can exclude that President Biden is orange because of Bronx ColorsBoosting Hydrating Concealer in Orange.
No, we don’t know. I think the mystery is as unsolved as it could possibly be. And maybe the face color of the President of the United States is less important than any other aspects of him, and his office. I will continue to investigate, though.
Brad Thomas and Donald Trump. Courtesy of Gene Ho Photography
Why is Donald Trump orange?
Donald Trump, the former president of the USA has an extraordinary skin color. It is yellowish almost orange and it has caused a lot of speculation among journalists, fellow politicians, and ordinary people as to why that is… Why is his facial skin tone so… strange?
He is blondish and has a blond complexion. So, it’s no wonder that he has delicate skin, a skin that maybe shouldn’t be exposed to much to the sun. And he should use good protection and not sunbathe during the hot hours.
But, with all that said, in later years he is becoming increasingly orange. An artificial, synthetic color that does very little to improve his physical appearance.
Nobody, apart from his closest family, knows exactly the reason for the strange skin tone.
The various theories.
There have been speculations. Most of them regard self-tanning with tanning beds or spray-tanning, or the use of colored lotions.
Self-tanning would justify the whiter areas around the eyes, but it can’t explain the whiter areas around the face, at the hairline, and on the hands. Many people from within the White House have stated that there are no tanning beds inside the premises, and there is no spray-tanning boot.
Colored lotions are a possible explanation. Especially as the complexion of the face seems to be very different from what we can see of the rest of the body. A very orange foundation without any other levels of makeup could possibly produce the kind of color we see in the President’s face.
The White House’s explanation.
The White House has declared many times that the orange look on Donald Trump’s face is due to Good Genes. It is not specified how good genes make someone’s face turn orange.
In September 2019 the President said that the strange color was caused by all the low-energy bulbs.
– The light bulb. People said what’s with the light bulb? Trump stated speaking before Republican legislators in Baltimore
– …And I looked at it, the bulb that we’re being forced to use.., the light’s no good. I always look orange. And so do you. The light is the worst.
The untold truth! Why is Trump orange?
In December 2019 Washington Post published a story about how Trump supposedly should have used employed undocumented immigrants at the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster. Interviews with the household workers uncovered a new possible reason for Trump’s orange face: Artificial face color.
According to one of the housekeepers, the shade of the makeup that she had to put in Donald Trump’s room every day was “una naranja espantosa”, a scary orange. After more investigation, only one possible product came up… The Bronx boosting hydrating concealer orange.
Now, the Bronx Boosting Hydrating Concealer in Orange isn’t a high-end makeup line. The company making it is a Swiss firm, Bronx colors. Their products are medium- to low-end, and even they don’t consider this particular product very interesting.
To be perfectly correct, it’s a concealer, not a foundation. It should be used to correct imperfections in skin tone. It’s not meant to be applied evenly on the face as a foundation is. But I’m not an expert.
Isabelle von Känel, the Chief Operating Officer of Bronx Colors, can’t confirm that Trump uses their product.
– We are not sending him any products, but just like anyone else, he could buy from any retailer or from any other source.
The product is not available in retail in the USA, and maybe it’s for the best. Some unofficial reviews and bloggers have slammed it pretty good. And Isabelle von Känel confirms that they haven’t been marketing it for the US market. Discussions are being made but so far there is no distribution in America.
Conclusion
We cannot say for sure why Trump is orange. But I think, without proof, that we can exclude the Bronx Colors Urban Cosmetics as responsible for his skin tone. The probability that the man who was the President of the United States as well as the 766th richest person on earth, would go through lengthy measures to buy a cheap brand from Switzerland, a brand that doesn’t even sell in the US, just to have the exclusive privilege to have his face turn orange… Well, that probability is close to zero, as I see it.
This is another topic that is difficult to address. I am not a virologist or an immunologist, so I can’t speak from an authoritative point of view. All my sources are, as usual, referred at the bottom of the page. The article is about the aerosols and if they can transmit the virus SARS CoV-2 or not.
What does it take for a virus to be able to travel from one human to another?
A virus is very small, under a half micrometer. The virus SARS CoV-2 is 80-160 nanometers (nm), or 0,08 to 0,16 micrometers (µm), or 0,00008 to 0,00016 millimeters in diameter, Keep this in mind for the next step.
The virus lives inside our body, but after some time it will need to move on. It gets fed up with just making one person suffer, and it starts spreading. It will travel from one individual to another. The virus is most prone to transmit the disease to another person from 1 – 3 days before the first symptom till a week after in patients with mild symptoms and longer if the person have persisting symptoms.
And viruses can not fly, but they can travel on anything as long as it has a reasonably flat surface, is not too cold and not too hot.Normally they reach the other host, riding on things like feces, blood, sperm, mucus or simply by riding on the humidity of the expelled air. How they do this is a question about strategy, and every virus has one or more specific ways of transmission.
So how does SARS CoV-2 move around?
The absolute majority of the transmission of the SARS CoV-2 virus is thought to be by mucus and droplets, formed by the humidity of the air when we breath out. Either by symptomatic patients who sneeze and cough, or by pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic persons who just do their normal things, talk, touch, hug, exhale, and are being close in general. The virus can stay on a surface for many hours, days even until someone touches it and then scratches his mouth or nose. It survives longer on plastic and steel than on fabrics f.ex. And through the nose, mouth, ears, or eyes, the virus gets access to the mucous membrane of the new host.
When someone breathes, humidity comes out from the mouth and shoots into the air. The humidity that you can feel inside your face-mask or you can see if you breathe on a cold window-glass, is actually millions of very small droplets of humidity. If the person is infected with a virus, then these droplets will contain that virus.
Now, with more knowledge and the use of personal protective equipment, this way of transmission is getting more difficult for the virus. We still don’t always know who is ill and who’s not, though, so we don’t know exactly who to stay away from. The testing is still a little behind, so we have to practice social distancing with everybody, just to be safe, and not let anybody come closer than 1, or 2 meters (6 feet).
But, are we absolutely sure that the virus can’t reach us at 6 feet?
To understand this issue we have to know two things:
Can the virus travel with very small droplets, i.e..micro-droplets or aerosols?
Do we produce aerosols when we breathe, or are they just the bigger drops, those who fall to the ground?
What is an aerosol?
An aerosol is a droplet that is smaller than 5 micrometers (5 thousands of a millimeter). Remember that the Coronavirus is 0,08 – 0,16 micrometers.
Aerosol or micro droplets suspended in air.
The first thing to clarify is if the virus can travel on aerosols, or only on bigger droplets.
By definition, aerosols are droplets in air (or in a gas) of solid or liquid particles, small enough that they remain airborne for prolonged periods because of their low settling velocity. For spherical particles, settling times (for a 3-m fall) are:
10 s for a particle of 100 μm diameter.
4 min for 20 μm
17 min for 10 μm
62 min for 5 μm.
A particle with a diameter of less than 3 μm essentially does not settle.
Do these micro droplets suspended in air actually carry the virus?
Unfortunately, we don’t know everything about this new virus… Maybe we don’t even know very much. At the beginning of the Pandemic, almost all of our information came from knowledge of other, similar viruses. And from there we have the first piece of the puzzle. The SARS CoV-1, the virus that caused the outbreak of SARS in 2003 in Asia, traveled with aerosols through the air. This was confirmed by a number of studies and was regarded as the main, or one of the main transmission routes in indoor cases.
Many other viruses have been confirmed to be able to transmit through the air as well.
Recent studies on this specific coronavirus show that it can travel on very small micro droplets suspended in air, down to diameters of less than one micrometer. It can travel even without the droplet once it’s in the air, but it has to be pushed out together with something to start moving, and that something can be a very small droplet.
But how many viruses can travel with a micro droplet? Is it enough to make you sick?
And here we stumble on more things that we don’t know exactly. But new information becomes available as we move on. The department of Homeland Security in the US expects the infectious dose to be somewhere between 10 and 10.000 viruses. The exact number varies and it’s imprecise, but it’s obvious that you don’t really need a lot of viruses to get ill… At least not necessarily.
Lately, it’s also become clear that the more viruses you are exposed to, the higher the probability for you to catch the disease… And the higher the probability to develop sever symptoms.
Any way you look at it, it’s important to reduce the number of viruses to a minimum.
How many micro-droplets does a normal person cough out?
Every time we exhale, droplets flow out of our mouths. When we cough or sneeze, a strong current of air is produced, and with it, there will inevitably be droplets. These droplets diminish in size as soon as they come out, as some of the liquid evaporates. They become smaller. A very small aerosol typically dries out completely a short time after being expelled, but that depends greatly on temperature and humidity. A completely evaporated droplet leaves the virus hanging by itself in the air, so-called droplet nuclei.
The same document from Homeland Security states that a human being normally expels between 100.000 and 10 million viruses an hour, by breathing. But that’s what comes out of the mouth. If you stand far away, then the virus concentration is diluted.
The droplets come in all sizes. Some are big and fall to the ground very fast, some are smaller. The distance a droplet can travel also depends on the force with which it is thrown out. A sneeze has a big push behind it and can travel as far as 25 feet (8 meters).
But back to the micro droplets suspended in the air. How many do we exhale with every breath?
Although we now have some ideas it’s still uncertain and very individual. But there are a few important considerations:
Activating the vocal cords produce more particles.
The higher the volume, the more you shout, the more droplets you produce, but the size distribution is the same.
Some individuals expel more droplets of all sizes than their peers. And others have a higher viral load and emit more viruses in the droplets. These are sometimes referred to as super-spreaders.
The special case of choral singing.
Taking all this into consideration, it’s obvious that choral singing is a very high-risk activity. In a rehearsal situation, many singers are sitting close together producing huge quantities of aerosols. If the ventilation is poor, the rehearsal goes on for maybe an hour or more, and the singers don’t use masks (as it can be difficult to sing with the mouth covered), it would be a very dangerous thing to do.
Singing also means a different type of breathing, and a longer time for the virus to interact with the tissue in the lungs, bronchus, and the throat.
Think of it like smoking. If a smoker sits in the corner of the room, you feel the smell. But if 70 people smoke uninterruptedly in a rehearsal room for an hour and a half, and maybe with closed windows, it will be very difficult to escape.
In fact, there have been quite a few cases where one single person who was positive infected a large part of the chorus after only one rehearsal. It happened in Amsterdam, Berlin, Washington, and other places. Now, some countries have banned chorus rehearsals altogether.
So, what can we do?
In autumn 2020 more and more national health authorities, as well as the WHO have confirmed the danger connected to aerosols. These findings are difficult for many, more difficult than mask-wearing and hand-washing. If the virus can remain for hours in a closed environment, then restaurants, bars, shops, buses, all will need additional security measures. If it’s not enough to stay far away from people, and you can catch Covid just from entering a room, then it will be much harder to defend yourself. We would need to monitor all the others, not just ourselves
But hey, I’m no expert on this… I do think, though, that we might have to stay aware of this particular risk and keep our guard up. I believe the metaphor about smoking is right on topic. If one smoke, than you can move away. But if a lot of people smoke and all the windows are closed, than it doesn’t really help to stand six feet away.
Wearing a surgical mask, or even a home-made one, if it’s put on correctly, can reduce the number of droplets coming out from the mouth and nose radically. It’s mostly something you do to protect others, not yourself, even if it gives a little protection also to the bearer. It’s something we have to do together, as a sign of respect to our fellow human beings.
If you want to protect yourself, you need to wear a filtrating mask, N95, KN95, FFP2, or similar.
And good ventilation is crucial. Outside is safer than indoors, open windows are much safer than closed ones.
And as said before, maybe we have to look at the famous two meters, 6 feet in a different light. 6 feet is still better than 3, but 9 feet is better than 6. There is no magical limit where you can feel safe and drop all your guards. It’s mostly about probability… If all of the people wear masks it’s better than half. But at the end of the day, if I’m the only one wearing the stupid mask, it’s still better than if no one does…
Yes, very small micro droplets can carry the virus very far from the source, and stay suspended in the air for a long time… Under certain conditions indefinitely.
Greta Thunberg was born on January 3, 2003, in Stockholm, Sweden. Her parents are Malena Ernman, who at least in Sweden is a very famous opera singer, and Svante Thunberg, a Swedish actor and artist of minor success. She has a 2 year younger sister, Beata Ernman.
In 2014 Greta suffered a period of depression and general sadness. After an investigation at child and adolescent psychiatry (BUP) in Stockholm, she was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome (autism spectrum disorder),
During her school years before and after the diagnosis, she felt increasingly worried about the future and health of our planet. One distinct occasion was when her class saw a film about the waste problem of our planet in general and the great pacific garbage patchin the pacific ocean right outside of Californiain particular. At the end of that same lesson her teacher informed the class that the next week, the lessons would be held by a substitute, as she, the ordinary teacher, had to go to New Yorkfor a wedding.
According to Greta, this experience was a wake-up call. She understood the inconsistency of the adult community as well as the politicians, who say one thing but do another.
Asperger’s syndrome (autism spectrum disorder)
Greta has stated that being Asperger sometimes is a strength as you tend to look deeper and clearer into arguments. The world becomes black and white, true, and false. As she has said in multiple interviews.
– … but the climate question actually is black and white. In some way, it’s the most complicated question there is… But the solution is simple enough so that a five-year-old can understand it. We have to stop emissions. It’s black and white.
How could she become so famous?
In May 2018 Greta won second prize in a short story contest arranged by Svenska Dagbladet. The topic was the climate threat to our planet. Bo Thorèn, who was, and still is a climate profile in Sweden, contacted the winners and shared his idea of a school strike to sensitize the public view on the subject. He had been inspired by the Stoneman Douglas High School student protests after the shooting on February 14, 2018. The Stoneman Douglas protests eventually contributed to changing the weapon laws in Florida. Of the young writers, only Greta showed interest. And as nobody would follow, she went on strike alone. Bo Thorèn wasn’t involved in the one-person strike at that point.
Actually, Greta had been trying to act in many ways before autumn 2018. She had been a member of various groups of climate activists, she had attended meetings and actions but never felt that her participation had any effect.
Courtesy of Frankie Fouganthin
The idea of a strike was obviously more engaging. So, on August 20, 2018, Greta initiated her school strike outside the Swedish parliament. And the result of that initiative was to become notably renowned.
The facts about the commercial interests behind Greta Thunberg and wedonthavetime.org.
Who is behind Greta Thunberg – Ingmar Rentzhog?
When Greta Thunberg sat down outside the Parliament, the intention was to sit there until the election on the 9th of September. That would mean three weeks. That same day Ingmar Rentzhog, a Swedish PR consultant active in a variety of fields, tweeted about her and asking people to get down there and show her their appreciation.
– She needs your support now!
Ingemar Rentzhog had started We don’t have time, an online climate company on a hashtag-business-model in April that same year. Rentzhog engaged Thunberg as a counselor. Later that year Greta Thunberg cut all connections with the firm. Rentzhog has admitted that he continued to use Greta Thunberg’s name for publicity purpose until February 2019, without Greta knowing about it.
The facts about Greta Thunberg and the biography book by her parents.
Who is behind Greta Thunberg – Is it her parents?
On August 23, 2018, three days after the first protest outside the parliament, her parent’s book, “Scenes from the Heart” was published. Many argued that the date was just a little too close to the beginning of their daughter’s school strike to be a coincidence. In the first edition, only Malena Ernman and Svante Thunberg, Greta’s parents, were accredited as authors. On later, updated editions, both their daughters’ names are on the cover.
While the first edition had a portrait of Malena, later versions have a photo of Greta Thunberg on the cover.
I’ve actually met Malena Ernman (although she probably wouldn’t remember me), and she is a very strong, courageous, and determined woman. My experience tells me that it is beyond any doubt that she knows how to market herself as well as others. And the timing of the release of the book wasn’t random.
All revenue from the book goes to Greenpeace, WWF, and six other Swedish charity organizations.
Flying
One of the first decisions Greta made for herself and her family (… after the experience with the New York-flying teacher), was to stop flying. She actually imposed a family travel ban if traveling included airplanes.
Greta explains that this meant that her mother to some extent had to change her career. Being an opera singer with engagements in many countries, she couldn’t continue as before. She is now progressing her singing toward musical and popular music so that she can stay close to her home. A choice she has made for her daughters and for the environment.
Malena Ernman has always been productive in a more mainstream musical field as well as opera, though. She is one of those unusual singers who don’t respect boundaries. She moves with ease from one genre to another, from one type of music to another. She even has an extraordinary vocal range and has no problems singing in the soprano- as well as the lower contralto register, although she’s classified as a mezzo-soprano.
In 2009 she won the Swedish national qualification for the Eurovision Song Contest. In the final, she finished number 21.
Greta Thunberg, Maliza II, and the Monaco Yacht Club.
Who is behind Greta Thunberg – Is it Pierre Casiraghi, Princess Caroline’s son?
In September 2019 Greta Thunberg was invited to speak to the US Congress, as well as the UN Climate Action Summit. To get to the other side of the Atlantic, she would have to use a boat if flying was no option. She had many offers from various sustainers of her movement but finally decided to go with Malizia II. This is a 60 feet, monohull, extreme racing sailboat. It is one of the fastest single-hull sailboats in the world. It actually didn’t take more than two weeks for them to reach New York from Plymouth, England.
Courtesy of Jerome Samson
The owner of the boat is Gerhard Senft, an Austrian mechanical engineer. It is sponsored by the Monaco Yacht Club. Pierre Casiraghi,the youngest son of Princess Caroline of Monaco, and vice president of the club sailed the boat together with skipper Boris Herrman. Then there were Greta’s father Svante and Nathan Grossman, a documentary filmmaker aboard. Sponsors of the boat’s racing activity are BMW, the German car manufacturer, and the Swiss bank group EFG(European finance group).
Greta asked that all sponsors’ logos were taken down and in fact, the boat had only logos connected to climate change commitments when crossing the Atlantic. She was also assured that the sponsors were excluded from this particular event. Sponsoring is more general than that, though, and excluding two weeks of traveling from all the rest is difficult.
Going back
The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP25)was supposed to be held in November in Brazil. When Jair Bolsonaro was elected President, he withdrew the offer to host the event. Chile agreed to step up and organize it in Santiagobut social unrest forced it to be transferred again. This time to Spain. When Greta left Plymouthshe was supposed to stay at least until the COP25 in November in Santiago, but when Chile was no longer hosting, she decided to go back to Europe.
This time she hitchhiked with Riley Whitelumand Elayna Carausufrom Australiaand their boat Vagabond. They had been sailing the world for 5 years and now with their one-year-old son, Lenny, they offered a lift to Greta and her father. The British professional yachtswoman Nikki Henderson joined the crossing.
She made it just in time for the COP25 in Madrid.
The true nature of a sixteen-year-old girl.
Acting out is never an easy task for someone with autism spectrum disorder. Greta, herself claims that the decision to do something has helped her in many ways. Firstly, she feels better, she is less depressive, and she has come to terms with her shyness and her selective mutism (another of her diagnoses). It has been a sort of therapy.
The strain on her family was for a period overwhelming. Greta’s younger sister, Beata, also has Asperger’s Syndrome. But she also has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). At a certain point, the family had to face extreme situations when one child refused to eat and was dying from starvation and the other threw bookshelves around. It came to a point were none of the parents could continue working because they both had to take care of their daughters, one each.
Courtesy of Christopher Michel
Who is behind her? Cause she has to be connected to a person, an organization, or a political group in some way…?
She had a collaboration with Ingemar Rentzhog but she ended that after a short period. She has no contract or loose connections with Pierre Casiraghi or with Gerhard Senft, just as she doesn’t have any collaboration with Riley Whitelum and Elayna Carausu, or with BMW or EFG… Or with Arnold Schwarzenegger, or with Tesla… Or Leonardo di Caprio…
I, myself, am convinced that the book release was timed with the striking initiative outside the Swedish parliament. It was supposed to be released in spring, but because of a change of publishing company, it was postponed until autumn. Another reason could possibly be that it was a better moment to get publicity, timing it with the climate initiative of Greta.
But even if there’s nobody pulling the strings, she still uses her connections and position to claim favors from organizations, companies, and famous persons.
I don’t think there is any doubt that a lot of groups, commercial or non-commercial, would dream of having a small portion of her fame mirroring onto them. She has enormous goodwill in certain layers of the global population. She is also extremely provocative. The things she says make front-page news all over, and she attacks more or less everybody who has any sort of power in the whole world. This obviously creates enemies. And conspiracy theories grow from there.
She is also very young, she is small in stature, and she has a documented developmental disorder. This makes her an even easier target for opponents, political or other, as well as the usual online haters.
Unfortunately, she is sometimes portrayed as an expert on climate issues. Scientists, politicians, and world leaders debate her statements as if they were her’s. She is also given many attributes, emotions, and intentions by others.
The viral photo with President Trump.
One example is the photo where Greta is looking at President Donald Trump with an angry face as if she blamed him for failing to resolve the climate crisis. The truth of the matter is that immediately before the photo was taken, the president’s security personnel had told her to move, and she consequently moved. She was hardly aware of the president at all at that moment. And the angry facial expression, that many newspapers and websites added as close-up, wasn’t there when the president showed up, but immediately before. The photo went viral.
Greta Thunberg writes her own material, but, according to her, there are people who check the manuscripts, and there are scientists who check all the facts to get them right. She has an organization, and she has her parents, and other close friends and family. She is not alone. She is surely influenced by others, by her family, by other climate activists, as well as by what she reads about climate change.
So why does she do it? If it isn’t for the money, for fame… Or for some political group?
There has never been any documented connection between Greta Thunberg and any organization, single person, or company for political or economical benefit. Until now no one has ever been able to confirm a political or economical agenda behind Greta Thunberg’s climate commitment.
So if it isn’t for fame and money, why does she do it?
A 15-year-old girl doesn’t need a motive for trying to save the planet.
One of Greta’s more frequent quotes is “I shouldn’t even be up here… I should be back in school, studying… “
It is not necessary to believe that she is independent and uncorrupt. Greta Thunberg is not at all important. The important issue is the scientific truth about things, and that truth can, and maybe should be found elsewhere. And now I’m going to quote the IPCC because that is maybe the most authoritative organization dealing with climate change…
In the Paris agreement of 2015, all countries agreed to try to keep the average global temperature well below 2°C above pre-industrialism temperature. And pursue efforts to limit the temperature to 1,5°C above pre-industrialism levels.
We are now heading towards a temperature of 3,7°C above pre-industrial temperatures at the end of the century.
To reach a 1,5°C temperature increase, the pathway is 41 GtCO2e in 2025 and 27 GtCO2e in 2030. Carbon dioxide equivalency (GtCO2e) is a quantity that describes, for a given mixture and amount of greenhouse gas, the amount of CO2 that would have the same global warming potential.
The actual figures are 52–55 GtCO2e in 2025 and 53–56 GtCO2e in 2030. We are actually increasing the emission of greenhouse gases instead of decreasing it. These are calculations before the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.
Olof Thunberg
In 2100 the sea level is now estimated at 62 – 110 centimeters over today’s levels. That would mean that by 2100, land now home to 200 million people, could be permanently below the high tide line.
In such a scenario, the sea level will obviously continue to increase even after 2100. Some estimates display a ten feet increase by 2300.
Conclusion
There has never been any evidence of any organization, group, company, or private person with political or economical interests behind Greta Thunberg. She has her family and she has had assistance from individuals, companies, and groups on various occasions. None of which has acquired any quid pro quo from Greta. She has been criticized for some of her choices on this topic, especially for the sailing trip with Maliza II. I assume that she will be more careful in the future.
She was born into an artistic family, her parents are famous, her grandfather was Olof Thunberg, an iconical Swedish actor. That obviously helped when reaching a larger audience.
In autumn, she will start secondary school (Gymnasium), and will probably have less time to travel the world.
No, Greta Thunberg is not a puppy. She is a teenager concerned about the future of our planet. At one point she decided to try to do something about it.